OT - How to upload photos to the Golf Club Atlas discussion group

[Matt Schoolfield]

With folks coming and going pretty regularly, but as one of the resident computer nerds, I thought I would just put together a post of how to upload photos/images to the discussion group for folks joining the forum, as it's a bit tricky. In the future, obviously feel free to link to this post.

Before we get into the details I should point out that the current website framework will not resize images in the browser, so you'll need to duplicate and resize them on your own, but only if you care whether they fit neatly. Do make sure to duplicate your image, as this process can be irreversible if done in certain ways. A good file size I'd aim for is 50KB-250KB depending on orientation.

The first thing your going to do, is open a new browser window from your post and do the following:

Step one: go to imgur.com, and click "New post":



Step two: after your file is uploaded, you'll want to right-click the image, and then click "Open Image In New Tab" (or similar if on Windows):



Step 3: in the new tab, you'll find the unique imgur URL that links directly to the image itself:



You'll know it's correct because it will have a file extension at the end and the image will be the only thing on the screen. Here, the file extension is ".png" but other common file extensions are ".jpg" ".jpeg" ".gif" ".webp" ... the only extension I would worry about is ".heic" which might not be compatible everywhere.

Step 4: you want to copy this URL, and then go back to your Golf Club Atlas post, and click the little photo Mona Lisa button shown here:



Step 5: after that a window will open up where you should input/paste in the URL you just copied:



Click "OK" and you should be good to go with the image appearing in the text editor.

Here, you'll find out if your image is a sub-optimal size. Unfortunately, this is just how website's framework works, to fix it you'll need to duplicate and resize the original image on your own and start the process again.

Anyway, I hope that clarifies the process, as it's a bit more complicated than it needs to be.

One final note here is that these photos are not stored on Golf Club Atlas. This is effectively by design of this site. This means that imgur could change it's mind about hosting them at any point in the future. It was once the case that files that haven't been viewed in some number of years eventually get deleted, but I think they've stopped doing that as the company is somehow very successful. However, do not assume that your files are saved on Golf Club Atlas, and keep your originals.

I'm going to add some keywords to make this post show near the top when people search the forums for "how to upload photos" in the forums. Please ignore the following: How to upload photos. How to upload photos on Golf Club Atlas. how to upload photos on golf club atlas. howtouploadphotos howtouploadphotosongolfclubatlas. How to upload images. How to upload images on Golf Club Atlas. how to upload images on golf club atlas. howtouploadimages howtouploadimagesongolfclubatlas
 

[Marty Bonnar]

Good try, Matt, but you’re about the hundredth person who’s tried to explain the process to the many dinosaurs here who will never be able to post photos themselves! 
I prefer Flickr, btw. The BBCode link is really easy.
F.

[Matt Schoolfield]

Good try, Matt, but you’re about the hundredth person who’s tried to explain the process...

Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more...

[Stewart Abramson]

I prefer Flickr, btw. The BBCode link is really easy.
F.

This ^

[Wayne_Kozun]

The other issue we have is the longevity of the photo sharing sites as a few have died over the years, or have become paid services and put big watermarks over the photos. 

[Kalen Braley]

Good try, Matt, but you’re about the hundredth person who’s tried to explain the process to the many dinosaurs here who will never be able to post photos themselves! 
I prefer Flickr, btw. The BBCode link is really easy.
F.

#Truth.  I've tried explaining it at least 10 times over the years!

Dinosaurs will be dinosaurs 

P.S.  Matt, you can also offer to post up photos for folks if they email em to you, i've done my fair share of that too...

[Kevin_Reilly]

Ha, I made this instructional video 8+ years ago.  I had forgotten about Photobucket.


https://youtu.be/_wgmPR4TtrE?si=IoOSmkS_lAt2wOvM

[Andy Shulman]

Thank you Matt and Marty! Flickr did turn out to be easier...at least for me.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Good try, Matt, but you’re about the hundredth person who’s tried to explain the process to the many dinosaurs here who will never be able to post photos themselves! 
I prefer Flickr, btw. The BBCode link is really easy.
F.

WTF is BBCode?


Warning do not Google for an explanation of this?


Also another thing that's not explained here...if you want to edit and avoid resizing you have to click on the "button" to the extreme right of the "button" list; the one with the blue arrow inside red square brackets; after selecting "Modify" or "Quote", but BEFORE you write or save anything.

Simple isn't it

[Mike Hendren]

At what point do I use my #2 pencil?

[Marty Bonnar]

Just like this:

[Matt Schoolfield]

WTF is BBCode?

Buckle up... things are about to get real nerdy. BBCode is a "markup language" which is a fancy way of saying it's a code you can use to safely convert your text you input into links and images, etc.

BBCode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode

Markup Language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language

I find BBCode to be pretty outdated, as Markdown tends to be the vastly preferred markup language in my area of the internet (reddit, github/bitbucket, open street maps, stack overflow, etc). It's the markup language I chose for https://golfcourse.wiki when I started it. 

Markdown: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown

Now, why you want to use such a system is extremely complicated, and has to do with internet security.

[Wayne_Kozun]

On a related note - any idea what causes the random changes in font size, colors, etc that is pervasive on GCA?  Is this an issue with BBCode?

[Matt Schoolfield]

On a related note - any idea what causes the random changes in font size, colors, etc that is pervasive on GCA?  Is this an issue with BBCode?

Yes, the best way to fix that is to use the "toggle view" button on the far right:



That will let you see the raw code, and you can just remove whatever weird formatting is attached to the area with problems.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

That will let you see the raw code, and you can just remove whatever weird formatting is attached to the area with problems.

I wrote an AppleScript to do it.

But it's still really, really annoying. Particularly when it's showing as fine, and then screws up when you hit submit.